WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE 3, 1564, is a red-letter day in the history literature; for on that day, as tradition s born in the village of Stratford, in the Warwick, England, William Shakespeare, t poet of modern times. Certain it is that later, April 26, the christening ceremony ant poet took place in the parish church at Shakespeare came of ancient and honorable The surname itself, "implying capacity in g of the spear," testifies to the chivalric some early ancestor. On both sides the boast of sturdy yeoman ancestry. His an Shakespeare, was the son of a tenant ng at Snitterfield, four miles from Stratnd which was owned by Robert Arden, the randfather of the poet, and whose younger, Mary, was, in 1557, married to John akespeare. From her father, who died in 1556, ry Arden inherited money and land, thus bringing ubstantial dowry to her husband. John Shakespeare seems to have been a shrewd, ergetic business man, combining the occupations of -mer, glover, and trader in agricultural produce. - must have commanded the respect and confidence his fellow-townsmen, for he was elected to various ces of trust and responsibility; finally, in 1568, aining the highest office in the gift of the corporan, that of High Bailiff. His education must, hower, have been very limited, some authorities asserting at he could neither read nor write; but according to akespeare's latest biographer, Sidney Lee, “When esting documents he occasionally made his mark, there is evidence in the Stratford archives that could write with facility." Mary Arden, as was mally the case with women of her station in life, s entirely ignorant of book-lore. William was the rd child and the first son of this marriage. His o elder sisters having died in infancy, he naturally k the place of the eldest child in the home, where ee younger brothers and one sister grew up with n. Happily. Stratford possessed an excellent Free ammar School for the education of boys. The truction was mainly in the Latin language and erature. Beginning with the Latin Grammar, or as it was called, the boys were drilled in onal exercises, and later they read the an authors, - Cicero, Virgil, Ovid, Horace, lautus, and Terence. From our point of may seem a very one-sided training; but ace with such writers is in itself a liberal School hours were long, occupying the winter and summer, and we cannot wonder ture-loving Shakespeare should have written of the "schoolboy creeping like snail unto school." Some knowledge of French and seems also to have acquired during the es that he is supposed to have attended the School. ourteenth year Shakespeare was withdrawn ol, as it is supposed to assist his father, who Decome seriously embarrassed financially. Jeither a borrower nor a lender be; insel which Shakespeare puts into the mouth rldly-wise Polonius in the play of Hamlet ally have been suggested by knowledge of 's financial difficulties. For, in a moment g need, John Shakespeare had borrowed m the husband of his wife's sister, giving Security a mortgage on the Arden homestead, which been included in Mary Arden's dowry. Once in t, John Shakespeare found it impossible to extri> himself from his increasing financial distresses, , in 1586, an importunate creditor informed the il court that the debtor had no goods which could seized for payment of liabilities. t is a significant fact that, about this very time, lliam Shakespeare left Stratford to seek his fores in London. Ere that time, however, William himself incurred heavy responsibilities on his own Dunt. Late in 1582, when but eighteen and a half rs of age, he had been married to Anne Hathaway, was eight years his senior. She was the daughter In old family friend living in the neighboring parish Shottery, and it is probable that the marriage was culmination of an early attachment. n 1585 three little ones, a daughter, Susanna, and win boy and girl, Hamnet and Judith, had come Shakespeare's home. How should he provide for little family? Stratford offered few opportunities an ambitious young man, and it seems natural t Shakespeare should turn to London to seek emyment. There is a somewhat doubtful tradition the effect that his departure was hastened by a secution for poaching on the deer preserves of a ghboring country gentleman, Sir Thomas Lucy of Manor. However that may be, the year A young Shakespeare making his way to cobably on foot. Whether he had already definite plans as to his future work, it is to say. From his early boyhood he had ent opportunities of witnessing dramatic ees. The Guildhall of Stratford, near by ar School, was often visited by companies ng players - once at least, while Shakether held the office of Bailiff; the neighn of Coventry was the scene of regular epresentations; and the usual country feshas May Day and Christmastide, were by some kind of dramatic performance. It believe that the instinct of genius attracted theatre. a variously asserts that his earlier connec me theatre was in the capacity of "prompter's or call-boy, holder of horses for the visitors, 1 servitor. In a short time he was enrolled actors, in which profession he speedily putation. In 1592 the publisher Chettle Shakespeare was "exelent in the qualitie es," and the old actor William Beeston - the next century that Shakespeare "did ingly well,"1 and he "pursued the profesby Sidney Lee in A Life of William Shakespeare. |